Olusegun Olanrewaju
The National Universities Commission (NUC) yesterday ordered the closure of universities across the country to enable students to participate in the February 25 and March 11 general elections.

In a letter addressed to vice-chancellors of all universities and directors of inter-university centres, the NUC noted that the directive was based on the directive of the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu.

The universities are directed to shut down and suspend academic activities on February 22 and March 14 for students to actively participate in the polls.

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The statement “As Vice-Chancellors of all Universities and Director/Chief Executive of Inter-University Centres are quite aware the 2023 General Elections have been scheduled to hold on Saturday, February 25, for the Presidential and National Assembly, and Saturday, March 11, 2023, for Gubernatorial and State Assembly, respectively.

“Given the foregoing and concerns expressed on the security of staff, students, and properties of our respective institutions, the Honourable Minister of Education, Mallam Adama Adamu has following extensive consultations with the relevant security agencies, directed that all Universities and Inter-University Centres shut down and academic activities are suspended between 22 February and 14th March 2023.”

There have been calls from the public for the closure of tertiary institutions to enable students to vote during the 2023 elections.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had in January presented a register containing 93,469,008 voters for the general elections.

The data from INEC reveals that over 26 million students are currently registered.

The voter distribution also revealed that 44,414,846 registered voters are females, and 49,054,162 are males.